The spatial and temporal dynamics of Sax1 (CHox3) homeobox gene expression in the chick's spinal cord

Development ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 120 (7) ◽  
pp. 1817-1828 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Spann ◽  
M. Ginsburg ◽  
Z. Rangini ◽  
A. Fainsod ◽  
H. Eyal-Giladi ◽  
...  

Sax1 (previously CHox3) is a chicken homeobox gene belonging to the same homeobox gene family as the Drosophila NK1 and the honeybee HHO genes. Sax1 transcripts are present from stage 2 H&H until at least 5 days of embryonic development. However, specific localization of Sax1 transcripts could not be detected by in situ hybridization prior to stage 8-, when Sax1 transcripts are specifically localized in the neural plate, posterior to the hindbrain. From stages 8- to 15 H&H, Sax1 continues to be expressed only in the spinal part of the neural plate. The anterior border of Sax1 expression was found to be always in the transverse plane separating the youngest somite from the yet unsegmented mesodermal plate and to regress with similar dynamics to that of the segregation of the somites from the mesodermal plate. The posterior border of Sax1 expression coincides with the posterior end of the neural plate. In order to study a possible regulation of Sax1 expression by its neighboring tissues, several embryonic manipulation experiments were performed. These manipulations included: removal of somites, mesodermal plate or notochord and transplantation of a young ectopic notochord in the vicinity of the neural plate or transplantation of neural plate sections into the extraembryonic area. The results of these experiments revealed that the induction of the neural plate by the mesoderm has already occurred in full primitive streak embryos, after which Sax1 is autonomously regulated within the spinal part of the neural plate.

Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Pera ◽  
S. Stein ◽  
M. Kessel

Ectodermal patterning of the chick embryo begins in the uterus and continues during gastrulation, when cells with a neural fate become restricted to the neural plate around the primitive streak, and cells fated to become the epidermis to the periphery. The prospective epidermis at early stages is characterized by the expression of the homeobox gene DLX5, which remains an epidermal marker during gastrulation and neurulation. Later, some DLX5-expressing cells become internalized into the ventral forebrain and the neural crest at the hindbrain level. We studied the mechanism of ectodermal patterning by transplantation of Hensen's nodes and prechordal plates. The DLX5 marker indicates that not only a neural plate, but also a surrounding epidermis is induced in such operations. Similar effects can be obtained with neural plate grafts. These experiments demonstrate that the induction of a DLX5-positive epidermis is triggered by the midline, and the effect is transferred via the neural plate to the periphery. By repeated extirpations of the endoderm we suppressed the formation of an endoderm/mesoderm layer under the epiblast. This led to the generation of epidermis, and to the inhibition of neuroepithelium in the naked ectoderm. This suggests a signal necessary for neural, but inhibitory for epidermal development, normally coming from the lower layers. Finally, we demonstrate that BMP4, as well as BMP2, is capable of inducing epidermal fate by distorting the epidermis-neural plate boundary. This, however, does not happen independently within the neural plate or outside the normal DLX5 domain. In the area opaca, the co-transplantation of a BMP4 bead with a node graft leads to the induction of DLX5, thus indicating the cooperation of two factors. We conclude that ectodermal patterning is achieved by signalling both from the midline and from the periphery, within the upper but also from the lower layers.


Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Knoetgen ◽  
C. Viebahn ◽  
M. Kessel

Different types of endoderm, including primitive, definitive and mesendoderm, play a role in the induction and patterning of the vertebrate head. We have studied the formation of the anterior neural plate in chick embryos using the homeobox gene GANF as a marker. GANF is first expressed after mesendoderm ingression from Hensen's node. We found that, after transplantation, neither the avian hypoblast nor the anterior definitive endoderm is capable of GANF induction, whereas the mesendoderm (young head process, prechordal plate) exhibits a strong inductive potential. GANF induction cannot be separated from the formation of a proper neural plate, which requires an intact lower layer and the presence of the prechordal mesendoderm. It is inhibited by BMP4 and promoted by the presence of the BMP antagonist Noggin. In order to investigate the inductive potential of the mammalian visceral endoderm, we used rabbit embryos which, in contrast to mouse embryos, allow the morphological recognition of the prospective anterior pole in the living, pre-primitive-streak embryo. The anterior visceral endoderm from such rabbit embryos induced neuralization and independent, ectopic GANF expression domains in the area pellucida or the area opaca of chick hosts. Thus, the signals for head induction reside in the anterior visceral endoderm of mammals whereas, in birds and amphibia, they reside in the prechordal mesendoderm, indicating a heterochronic shift of the head inductive capacity during the evolution of mammalia.


Development ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Frumkin ◽  
R. Haffner ◽  
E. Shapira ◽  
N. Tarcic ◽  
Y. Gruenbaum ◽  
...  

The chicken homebox containing gene, CdxA (formerly CHox-cad), was previously shown to be expressed during gastrulation. Localization of CdxA transcripts by in situ hybridization to tissue sections revealed that, during gastrulation, expression of this gene exhibits a posterior localization along the primitive streak. The transcripts are localized to epiblast cells in the vicinity of the primitive streak, to cells of the primitive streak itself and in the definitive endoderm as it replaces the hypoblast. In order to study in greater detail the pattern of expression of the CdxA gene during gastrulation, we expressed the full-length CdxA protein as a fusion protein in E. coli and generated monoclonal antibodies against it. Chicken embryos at different stages of gastrulation were processed for whole-mount immunohistochemical localization of the protein using anti-CdxA antibodies. Once the pattern of expression in the whole embryo was determined, the same embryos were sectioned to determine the identity of the cells expressing the CdxA protein. Detailed analysis of the CdxA protein in embryos, from the onset of primitive streak formation to the beginning of the tail bud stage (stages 2 to 10), has shown different patterns of expression during primitive streak elongation and regression. The CdxA protein is initially detected at the posterior marginal zone and the expression moves rostrally into the primitive streak during mid-streak stages. As the primitive streak elongates, the CdxA stripe of expression moves anteriorly. By definitive streak stages, the CdxA stripe of expression delineates a position along the anterior-posterior axis in the primitive streak. CdxA, like its Drosophila homologue cad, is expressed during gastrulation in a stripe localized to the posterior region of the embryo. These observations suggest that CdxA as a homebox gene may be part of a regulatory network coupled to axial determination during gastrulation in the early chick embryo.


Development ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 813-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Streit ◽  
C.D. Stern ◽  
C. Thery ◽  
G.W. Ireland ◽  
S. Aparicio ◽  
...  

It was previously shown (Roberts, C., Platt, N., Streit, A., Schachner, M. and Stern, C. D. (1991) Development 112, 959–970) that grafts of Hensen's node into chick embryos enhanced and maintain expression of the L5 carbohydrate in neighbouring epiblast cells, and that antibodies against L5 inhibit neural induction by such a graft. We now show that L5 is initially widely expressed in the epiblast, but as neural induction proceeds it gradually becomes confined to and up-regulated in the early neural plate. L5 can therefore be considered as a marker for cells that are competent to respond to neural induction. We also show that Hepatocyte Growth Factor/Scatter Factor (HGF/SF) promotes the expression of L5 by extraembryonic epiblast in collagen gels after overnight culture. Explants cultured for several days in the presence of HGF/SF, as well as explants of prospective neural plate, can differentiate into cells with neuronal morphology expressing neuronal markers. To investigate whether HGF/SF is expressed in the chick embryo at appropriate stages of development, we produced specific cDNA probes and used them for in situ hybridization. We find that at the primitive streak stage, HGF/SF is expressed specifically in Hensen's node. We therefore propose that HGF/SF plays a role during the early steps of neural induction, perhaps by inducing or maintaining the competence of the epiblast to respond to neural inducing signals.


Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 1154-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Silver ◽  
James Palis

Abstract Hematopoiesis in the mouse conceptus begins in the visceral yolk (VYS), with primitive erythroblasts first evident in blood islands at the headfold stage (E8.0). VYS erythropoiesis is decreased or abrogated by targeted disruption of the hematopoietic transcription factors tal-1, rbtn2, GATA-1, and GATA-2. To better understand the potential roles of these genes, and to trace the initial temporal and spatial development of mammalian embryonic hematopoiesis, we examined their expression patterns, and that of βH1-globin, in normal mouse conceptuses by means of in situ hybridization. Attention was focused on the 36-hour period from mid-primitive streak to early somite stages (E7.25 to E8.5), when the conceptus undergoes rapid morphologic changes with formation of the yolk sac and blood islands. Each of these genes was expressed in extraembryonic mesoderm, from which blood islands are derived. This VYS expression occurred in a defined temporal sequence: tal-1 and rbtn2 transcripts were detected earlier than the others, followed by GATA-2 and GATA-1, and then by βH1-globin. Transcripts for all of these genes were present in VYS mesoderm cell masses at the neural plate stage (E7.5), indicating commitment of these cells to the erythroid lineage before the appearance of morphologically recognizable erythroblasts. By early somite stages (E8.5), GATA-2 mRNA expression is downregulated in VYS blood islands as terminal primitive erythroid differentiation proceeds. We conclude that primitive mammalian erythropoiesis arises during gastrulation through the ordered temporal expression of tal-1, rbtn2, GATA2, and GATA-1 in a subset of extraembryonic mesoderm cells. During the stages analyzed, tal-1 and rbtn2 expression was also present in posterior embryonic mesoderm, while GATA-1 and GATA-2 expression was evident in extraembryonic tissues of ectodermal origin.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Leonard ◽  
N. Ferjan Ramirez ◽  
C. Torres ◽  
M. Hatrak ◽  
R. Mayberry ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 117-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
DW McGowan ◽  
ED Goldstein ◽  
ML Arimitsu ◽  
AL Deary ◽  
O Ormseth ◽  
...  

Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius are planktivorous small pelagic fish that serve an intermediate trophic role in marine food webs. Due to the lack of a directed fishery or monitoring of capelin in the Northeast Pacific, limited information is available on their distribution and abundance, and how spatio-temporal fluctuations in capelin density affect their availability as prey. To provide information on life history, spatial patterns, and population dynamics of capelin in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), we modeled distributions of spawning habitat and larval dispersal, and synthesized spatially indexed data from multiple independent sources from 1996 to 2016. Potential capelin spawning areas were broadly distributed across the GOA. Models of larval drift show the GOA’s advective circulation patterns disperse capelin larvae over the continental shelf and upper slope, indicating potential connections between spawning areas and observed offshore distributions that are influenced by the location and timing of spawning. Spatial overlap in composite distributions of larval and age-1+ fish was used to identify core areas where capelin consistently occur and concentrate. Capelin primarily occupy shelf waters near the Kodiak Archipelago, and are patchily distributed across the GOA shelf and inshore waters. Interannual variations in abundance along with spatio-temporal differences in density indicate that the availability of capelin to predators and monitoring surveys is highly variable in the GOA. We demonstrate that the limitations of individual data series can be compensated for by integrating multiple data sources to monitor fluctuations in distributions and abundance trends of an ecologically important species across a large marine ecosystem.


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